Super Duper Fast Domain Modelling

Presented by Chris Matts (@PapaChrisMatts) and Jeffrey Davidson (@JeffreyGoodReq) at Agile 2013 in Nashville, TN.

Excerpt from presentation submission:
Many IT projects are unintentionally disrespectful to the customer. They ask the customer to define inputs or process or calculations when all the customer should do is specify the output that will deliver them value. There is a disturbing fashion within Agile to take a UX approach where the user sketches out the input screens they need and the UX designer creates a low fidelity prototype that looks pretty in powerpoint or visio. Whilst this highly interactive approach is very appealing and satisfying approach for the UX person, it is disrespectful of the customer's time and it is fundamentally wrong as an approach. This approach has lead to failed projects.

But if the customer doesn't tell you the inputs, processes and calculations, who will?

The solution is Domain Modelling, or Business Analysis as it is also known, is a very unfashionable topic within the Agile community. Some authors appreciate the value of domain modelling but dare not speak its name. They refer to Knowledge crunching or Gathering Up-Front Knowledge. Domain modelling is a very valuable technique but it traditionally has a number of drawbacks. First, it can take a long long time, so long in fact that it undermines the value it delivers. Second, it is prone to analysis paralysis where it thrashes around unsure of which direction to take and is not sure when it is finished. Third, domain modelling produces a model rather than examples which is what we need to drive an Agile development.

This workshop will show a technique that addresses these issues. A super duper fast analysis technique that has a very clear start and end point, generating a model AND examples. The approach, which does not have a name, is based on knowledge smells.